Cable belts are well known in the heavy duty conveyor belt applications. In this type of conveyor belt construction the tension bearing portion of the conveyor belt is a planar set of heavy stranded cables embedded in an elastomeric carcass. Each of the set of stranded cables are oriented longitudinally parallel to the direction of travel of the conveyor belt. Due to the very high tensile strength of each of the stranded cables the load carrying capability of such a belt is much higher than conventional fabric reinforced conveyor belts. The cable type conveyor belts also are generally of lesser thickness than plied up fabric-reinforced belting since the stranded cables supply all strength necessary to the belt. The rubber or elastomeric cover in which the cables are embedded serves only to protect the cables from abrasion and cutting by sharp or abrasive aggregate which may be transported. These cable belts are used regularly in mining and other aggregate carrying applications requiring long overland hauls of very high load capacities.
The disadvantage to the cable belt construction is that the cable belt is extremely difficult to splice due to the problems associated with fastening single cables securely to one another at the ends of the belt. Conventionally the only splice which has been found suitable to this date is a vulcanized type splice where the ends of the belt which are to be fastened together are prepared by stripping back the rubber carcass from the cables interleaving the cables from one end with the cables on the other end and then curing elastomer into place around the interleaved cables. U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,120 describes one such method of splicing. A major disadvantage of cable belt occurs when a break or rupture of the belt occurs during service and that belt must be repaired in the field. Vulcanized splicing in the field is a long, time consuming, difficult process since the curing apparatus for vulcanizing the rubber in the splice area must be transported to the field. In addition the preparation of the belt ends is a long, tedious process which has always been performed by hand. In the field preparation of a cable belt the rubber cover is slit by hand using knives for skiving. The upper and lower covers are painstakingly trimmed back and once the covers are removed the rubber must be trimmed from around the cables without cutting individual strands of the cable. If some of the filaments of the strand are cut during skiving the cable will unwind thus ruining the splice area. In handcutting around the cables it is a desirable objective to cut as close to the cable as possible while still leaving a slight layer of rubber on the cables.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method for preparation of a cable belt end for splicing in which the rubber carcass can be accurately and uniformly trimmed from around the individual stranded cables of the belt. An advantage of the invention is that the splice can be made in a fraction of the time that handcutting methods require. Another object is to provide a method which can trim the rubber from around the cable to a close tolerance without cutting individual filaments of the stranded cable.